PP3D
PP3D is a wide, invertible heavyweight robot, armed with a bottom-mounted flywheel, that competed in the 2016 and 2017 series of Robot Wars. PP3D was built by Gary Cairns, formerly the driver of Typhoon and Typhoon 2, from Aberdeen. He is joined by his partner Sarah, and live events roboteer Jamie McHarg. The team use infrared cameras to measure the heat and damage within the robot between battles. The name PP3D stands for "Parts Printed in 3D", as the robot is sponsored by Cairns' 3D printing company PlastiPrint 3D, and 3D printing was used during construction to create temporary parts to fill in for the robot's internals which were being delivered from the USA. Smaller 3D printed parts are still present within PP3D. Robot History Robot Wars 2016 PP3D competed in Episode 4, where in the first round, it was drawn against Team MAD's flipper Apollo, two-time Annihilator champion Kan-Opener, and middleweight newcomer Sweeney Todd. After being slammed by Kan-Opener once, PP3D was left relatively unchallenged in the opening moments of the fight, allowing it to catch Apollo off-guard and slice one of its wheels off. It next tried to attack Kan-Opener, but was gripped by the yellow machine's claws, and was thrown by the floor flipper and then Apollo in sequence. PP3D was now inverted, and drove over the floor flipper, possibly to put its spinner back on the ground, but landed the same way up and knocked an angle grinder out of Sweeney Todd upon contact. With Kan-Opener now immobilised, PP3D struggled to gain a purchase on the arena floor, sliding around and bouncing when its disc makes contact with the surface. It attacked the seemingly immobile Sweeney Todd various times, sustaining a flip from Apollo in return, but both robots qualified for the next round. PP3D faced off with Apollo in a head-to-head environment in the next round. PP3D's plan was to once again target the wheels of Apollo, but this did not go according to plan, being buffeted around the arena in the opening stages. PP3D landed glancing blows on the side of Apollo, but a strong flip from the opposition removed one of PP3D's wheels entirely, leaving it only able to drive in circles. Although PP3D could not move, it was still considered mobile, and it hit Apollo hard, and spun on the spot to impose more danger. However, Apollo showed no fear, and threw PP3D into the wall, knocking out its removable link. This officially immobilised PP3D, awarding the robot its first loss. PP3D was then drawn against another full-pressure flipper, Eruption, a battle PP3D Robotics went into with quiet confidence, and the plan to shred Eruption's wheels, which are also exposed at the rear. PP3D landed a huge blow in the opening stages, causing both robots to recoil away. The next two blows were more in PP3D's favour, but the blow after that sent both robots reeling again. A huge attack from PP3D smashed pieces of armour away from Eruption, but this blow was so huge that both robots lost drive on one side simultaneously. The two competitors fidgeted around their respective parts of the arena, with PP3D being threatened by Dead Metal at the end, but cease was called after two minutes of inactivity. The Judges made their decision based on the first minute of the fight alone, and they unanimously voted for PP3D, awarding it two points. However, it was revealed afterwards that PP3D had burnt out one of its motors during the fight, and the team had not brought spares. PP3D may have had to withdraw from the competition, had they not been lent a spare motor by Team Legion. PP3D had the opportunity to qualify for the Heat Final, if it could defeat Storm 2, the robot that Gary Cairns had defeated in the Seventh Wars Grand Final with Typhoon 2. PP3D remained stationary to power up its undercutter, and was thrown into the air when Storm 2 collided with it. Although PP3D was damaging Storm 2, it was gradually knocked towards Shunt, which hit the top of PP3D with its axe. However, PP3D used its flywheel to rip Storm 2's side panel loose, and also buckle the scoop of Shunt. PP3D continued to use its weapon defensively, hitting Storm 2. The sound emitting from PP3D's spinner was caused from PP3D striking Storm 2 so hard that its HARDOX undercutter bent, and started to scrape along the floor. Eventually, one of PP3D's wheels locked up, causing it to become immobile directly on top of the pit. After Storm 2 pressed the pit release, PP3D descended, and its Robot Wars campaign ended with just two points in the league table, putting it in 4th place in the episode. Robot Wars 2017 PP3D competed in Episode 2. It was originally intended to appear in a later episode, but was drafted to compete in Episode 2 when another robot scheduled to fight in that episode was not ready in time. In its Group Battle, PP3D faced Draven, Cherub and Push to Exit. At the start of the battle, it stayed out of the way of its opponents before approaching Push to Exit, although not without attacking it. PP3D then attacked Draven, deflecting it and causing sparks to fly as its disc hit Draven's side twice. A few seconds later, PP3D drove head-on into Cherub, another shower of sparks flying as PP3D was deflected away by Cherub's wedge. PP3D slammed into Draven again, breaking the lower jaw of its crusher, before being briefly pushed around by Cherub. It recovered to resume its attack on Draven, pushing it towards Shunt's CPZ and tearing into its left-hand armour with its disc. PP3D drove away to slam into Cherub and Push to Exit, the three remaining competitors rebounding in different directions upon contact with PP3D's disc. The impact knocked a wire loose from inside Push to Exit, which caused it to stop near the Floor Flipper seconds later. With Draven also becoming immobilised through an attack from Shunt, PP3D progressed to the Head-to-Head round along with Cherub. In the pits, PP3D Robotics discovered that the connectors for PP3D's wiring had fused together, as a result of the high amount of current being drawn to power its disc. This required the robot to be completely stripped down and rebuilt ahead of its first Head-to-Head against Cherub. PP3D immediately drove away from Cherub as the latter approached, sending it careering across the arena after hitting its right-hand wheel. Seconds later, it slammed into Cherub's front, with PP3D’s disc clipping one of Cherub's forks and sending itself spinning into the air. PP3D was pushed over the Flame Pit by Cherub, before another hit deflected Cherub away and into the Arena Tyre, where Rogue House Robot was activated and Dead Metal left his CPZ to attack Cherub. This allowed PP3D to spin its disc up to maximum speed, with an audible hum reverberating throughout the arena as it did so. As soon as Cherub escaped Dead Metal's grasp, PP3D hit it, sending Cherub spinning into the wall and breaking one of the wall sections off. This caused the battle to be immediately stopped while repairs to the arena were carried out, with PP3D's attack being powerful enough to shear part of Cherub's wedge off and send itself recoiling into an empty CPZ. Once repairs were completed, the battle resumed, with both teams sharing the same control room and their robots restarting from the positions they were left in by the time 'cease' was initially called. However, neither robot showed signs of controlled mobility upon the restart, with PP3D spinning in circles on its disc after one of its drive motors had sheared off its mounts, and Cherub's forks being left inoperable and unable to lift it back upright. The battle went to a Judges' decision as a result, with the audience noticeably jeering at the lack of action in the last ten seconds. With both PP3D and Cherub becoming immobilised at the same time, the Judges assessed both halves of the battle. To the surprise of the teams, the Judges unanimously voted in favour of Cherub, with PP3D scoring no points as a result of its loss. Extensive repairs to PP3D's drive motor were required before its second Head-to-Head, against long-standing Robot Wars veteran Behemoth. Both robots shared joint-last place on the leaderboard with zero points, and needed a three-point knock-out victory in order to remain in contention for a place in the Heat Final. PP3D began the battle by buffeting Behemoth's side and anti-spinner scoop, sending it spinning away. It clipped Behemoth again as the latter attempted to position itself for an attack, before luring it close to the wall as Behemoth gave chase. However, Behemoth lifted PP3D onto one wheel and left it close to the wall before charging into PP3D, sending PP3D violently recoiling into Shunt's CPZ. At this stage, PP3D had also lost forward drive, and could not move away from Shunt. PP3D was axed and pushed against the wall, with sparks flying as its disc hit the House Robot's scoop. PP3D was eventually deflected free from Shunt, but it was suddenly engulfed in a shower of sparks as its weapon motor shorted out, and was left helpless as Shunt lifted it towards the wall. Meanwhile, Behemoth pressed the Arena Tyre, triggering the Rogue House Robot mode. As a result, Shunt rammed PP3D into another CPZ, with smoke and more sparks flying from PP3D as it spun aimlessly around in circles. Seemingly unable to drive straight, it was counted out as Behemoth rammed it again, before 'cease' was called. As before, PP3D scored no points, and remained in fourth – and last – place on the leaderboard. Gary Cairns revealed afterwards that the sparks resulted from damage sustained to PP3D's weapon motor, but also that PP3D had torn away part of Shunt's scoop, which the team kept as a souvenir. In its last Head-to-Head, PP3D faced Eruption, a rematch of their Head-to-Head battle from Series 8, with Cairns revealing in the pits that he intended to target Eruption's back end and damage its wheels. As PP3D had not earned enough points to reach the Heat Final, the team admitted that their only option was to totally destroy Eruption and force them to withdraw from the competition, making this the team's unfortunate battle plan. Both robots slammed into each other in the opening seconds, with a second slam sending PP3D flying into Dead Metal. PP3D landed on the Flame Pit, where it was pushed off by Eruption and struggled to drive forwards as it attempted to get its disc spinning. Eruption rammed into PP3D again as it spun round on its disc, with PP3D being grabbed by Dead Metal and narrowly escape being flipped by Eruption. Still spinning on its disc, PP3D was pushed into Sir Killalot and the Floor Flipper by Eruption, the Floor Flipper throwing it onto its back and improving its mobility as it drove away from Eruption. However, this allowed Eruption to get underneath PP3D and throw it out the arena, once again resulting in PP3D scoring no points, although not without leaving sizeable gashes through Eruption's flipper and anti-spinner plates. PP3D finished the Head-to-Head round with no points and in last place on the leaderboard, resulting in its elimination from Series 9. Results Wins/Losses *Wins: 3 *Losses: 5 Category:Competitors Category:UK Robot Wars Competitors Category:British Robots Category:Robots from Scotland Category:Robot Wars 2016 competitors Category:Invertible Robots Category:Robots with Horizontal Flywheels Category:Robots that represented military or emergency services Category:Robots with acronyms for names Category:Robot Wars 2017 competitors Category:4th Place winners Category:Robots with more losses than wins Category:Robots Thrown out of the Arena Category:Robots which have damaged the arena